Classes: About & Enrollment Information

We offer online classes to help you deepen your understanding of Transformative Language Arts, explore the craft of various genres and arts related to TLA, and develop your livelihood, community work, and service related to TLA.

Designed and taught by leading teachers, transformative language artists and activists, and master facilitators (want to be one of them?), these classes offer you ample opportunities to grow your art of words, your business and service, and your conversation with your life work.

The online nature of the classes allows you to participate from anywhere in the world (provided you have internet access) at any time of the day while, and at the same time, the intimate and welcoming atmosphere of the classes helps students find community, inspiration, and greater purpose.

While each class is unique to the teacher's style, all classes include hands-on activities (writing, storytelling, theater, spoken word, visual arts, music and/or other prompts), plus great resources, readings, and guidance. We use the online educational platform, Wet Ink for our classes, and many combine in-person meetings on Zoom and asynchronous gatherings via Wet Ink:

  • Our Community Online Classes have a set period of time, ranging from one day to eight weeks with a small cohort of typically 5 to 25 people. Every Wednesday a new weekly module opens for you to engage with on your own time, with forums and opportunities to share, interact, and receive feedback from peers and the teacher. If the teacher wants to schedule a live meeting, they will coordinate directly with enrolled participants. Classes remain open and available to enrolled participants for at least a week after the class end date.

Enrollment Cost

Classes are priced by the number of weeks they run, and members can register at the discounted member tuition rates. (For example, members pay $255 for a 6-week course, while non-members pay $295.)

Each registration is for one participant only, and all classes, unless arrangements are approved beforehand by the teacher and the TLA Network coordinator, are for people age 18 and up.

Cancellation & Refund Policy

Cancellations: A nonrefundable fee of 10% is included in each registration. There are no cancellations after the class begins. For the purposes of cancellation, the class beginning date is defined as the start date published by TLAN on the class registration page.

Low Enrollment Cancellations: Classes that do not meet a minimum enrollment may be canceled a minimum of 3 days prior to the first class meeting with full refunds for all registrants.

Incomplete: Students seeking the certificate in TLA Foundations who cannot complete a class due to circumstances out of their control may be granted a discounted registration on the next available offering of that class. To be eligible for the discount students must communicate their circumstance to the teacher as soon as possible.


Upcoming Classes

    • 02 October 2024
    • 29 October 2024
    • Online
    • 8
    Register


    "...an ideal genre for exploring the parts of our past (and present) that feel more difficult to share."

    Micro-memoir, a form of flash nonfiction, invites you to tell a compelling personal story in under 300 words by focusing on the moment, the tiny flashes that illuminate the larger self. A unique hybrid form, the micro-memoir combines the brevity of poetry with the storytelling strategies of fiction to magnify, as writer Bernard Cooper says, “some small aspect of what it means to be human.” With such a limited length, the micro-memoir is as much a craft of what is not said as what is, making it an ideal genre for exploring the parts of our past (and present) that feel more difficult to share.

    In this generative four-week class, you’ll learn ways to create tiny written snapshots of your life, distilling experiences to their essence and capturing them in powerful prose.

    Weekly readings will offer insight and inspiration while weekly prompts will invite you to craft your own micros. You’ll give and receive kind, constructive feedback in a supportive community through our online platform as well as our optional Zoom classes, which will provide additional writing exercises and the opportunity to ask questions, dive deeper into texts, and share your ideas and explorations with each other.

    Week by Week

    Week 1: What is micro-memoir, and what gives it its power? We’ll define this hybrid genre, exploring how it is different from longer nonfiction pieces, what it shares with and how it differs from prose poetry, and what fiction and poetic techniques writers use to enhance the telling of their life stories. We’ll consider why it’s an increasingly popular form, survey a wide range of examples for strategies and inspiration, and experiment with exercises to generate ideas for your own micros. What are the “decisive moments” you want to capture?

    Week 2: Despite its brevity, the backbone of a micro-memoir is still story: something happens to someone and impacts them in some way. But the brevity of the genre means that it needs something other than the typical exposition-to-resolution narrative arc. This week, we’ll compare and contrast the structure of micros with those of longer traditional pieces to show how micro-memoirists wrangle and subvert traditional elements of plotting and pacing to pare down the story arc and capture the moment and its power.

    Week 3: We remember in flashes, and the essence of a memory is often triggered by or held in an image or detail—some small, often ordinary thing that comes to reflect or encapsulate a deeply meaningful human experience. This week, we’ll explore ways to use active imagery and detail in micro pieces to allow ordinary things to carry the extraordinary emotional weight of our experiences. We’ll carefully consider word choice, too, to make sure each word is pulling its weight.

    Week 4: “Flash,” says writer and editor Dinty Moore, “is as much erasure as it is composition.” This week, we’ll experiment with making more from less by making your micros even smaller. What happens when you cut 300 words down to 200, 100, 50? We’ll explore when, why, and how to pare your micro down and make a smaller flash burn brighter. We’ll also look at resources for writers of micro-memoir, including craft guides and journals that publish micros, and possibilities for weaving micros together into a larger work. We’ll close the course with an optional Zoom wrap-up and reading session.

    Recommended text: The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Nonfiction: Advice and Essential Exercises from Respected Writers, Editors, and Teachers, ed. Dinty W. Moore, 2012.

    Who Should Take This Class

    This class is for anyone interested in memoir, creative nonfiction, and/or flash forms. It may be especially useful for people who want to tell their stories but don’t know where to begin: you’re invited to start small and see where it takes you.

    If you are already experimenting with the memoir form, join us to experiment with this form and see if some of your stories can do more with less.

    This course gives participants who want to tell their story a new genre to explore. While it may sound intimidating, the micro-memoir is actually quite accessible as a form and offers a great deal of opportunity for experimentation that can help writers find their voice and clarify what stories they want to tell, and why.  By zooming in on the moment rather than trying to tell a grand life story, participants will also gain confidence as storytellers and authors of their own experience.

    We offer scholarships based on income as well as some partial scholarships for people living with serious illness and/or disability or people of color through the Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg Fund. Please fill out this scholarship application form so that we can find the best way to make the class accessible to you.

    Format

    This is an online class, hosted on the online teaching platform Wet Ink. The day before class begins, you will receive an email invitation from Wet Ink. There are no browser requirements, and Wet Ink is mobile-friendly. The Wet Ink platform allows you to log in and complete the coursework on your own time. Coursework for each week will be posted by 6:00 AM EDT each Wednesday beginning October 2. 

    Weekly, optional 60-minute Zoom sessions will take place on the following schedule:

    • Wednesday, October 9: 12:00-1:00 PM Eastern time (11:00 AM CT, 10:00 AM MT, 9:00 AM PT)
    • Tuesday, October 15: 8:00-9:00 PM Eastern time (7:00 PM CT, 6:00 PM MT, 5:00 PM PT)
    • Wesnesday, October 23: 12:00-1:00 PM Eastern time (11:00 AM CT, 10:00 AM MT, 9:00 AM PT)
    • Tuesday, October 29: 8:00-9:00 PM Eastern time (7:00 PM CT, 6:00 PM MT, 5:00 PM PT)

    Sessions will be recorded and made available only to the class. 

    This class utilizes personal reflection, group discussion, and writing exercises to explore the art and craft of micro-memoir. You should plan to spend about three hours per week on the class writing and sharing your responses to the readings, discussion questions, creative writing prompts, and posts by your peers. The class is formatted so that you can engage with the material any time throughout the week. At the end of the class, you will receive an email that contains an archive of all your content and interactions.

    About the Facilitator

    Elizabeth Lukács Chesla is the author of You Cannot Forbid the Flower, an award-winning hybrid novella based on her father’s experiences in World War II and the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. The daughter of Hungarian refugees and a mother of three, she earned her MA from Columbia University and spent a decade teaching writing and literature in New York City before moving back home to the Philadelphia suburbs to raise her family. She is the author of multiple books on reading, writing, and critical thinking skills and holds a certificate in Transformative Language Arts Foundations. Liz serves as an assistant fiction editor for Consequence Forum and editor and writing coach for emerging authors. Her short prose has appeared in Quarter After Eight and Flare: An Anthology of Chronic Illness Told in Flash Narratives. She writes, edits, and teaches from the suburbs of Philadelphia. You can find more about Liz at https://elizabethchesla.com/

    • 30 October 2024
    • 17 December 2024
    • Online
    • 20
    Register


    If you’re a creative writer, whether you’re writing short stories already, planning a novel, or working on that memoir, then let me you ask you this:
    • Are you struggling with the kind creative blocks where the words are there, but you can’t write them or express them?
    • Are you feeling the need to write stories that offer more than just entertainment? Wanting to dig deeper into yourself to tell a compelling story, your own story? 
    • Are you wondering if it’s time to go beyond that veil we call the subconscious, time to understand the emotional dimensions of your senses, your thoughts, and your actions through storytelling?

    The Subconscious is the seat of repressed memories and hidden emotions. Imagery and symbolism are its language.  As humans we are the only species that resorts to storytelling to try to understand ourselves. Sometimes a story about a character’s anger or grief isn’t at all about that but is rather about their hidden shame.

    Everything has two poles, one apparent and another hidden. The journey towards healing and boundless creativity starts with this discovery. Characters in stories have patterns, desires, obstacles. What are those patterns trying to show or mirror?

    Good writing uses elements of craft to reflect the character shows and what they hide. We are going to explore the emotional maps that drive behavior, dialogue, desires, and conflicts of our characters in the stories we choose to tell. We’ll do that through using flash fiction (stories under 1000 words) to laser focus on emotions that drive patterns and actions.

    We'll produce 5 stories in this course.

    Week by Week

    Week One: Brief Introduction to Flash Fiction  We’ll understand why this medium is the most suitable for writing from the subconscious. We’ll also look at the basic structure of flash fiction, and why it’s so popular in this day and age as opposed to longer forms of storytelling. 

    Week Two: ( Show Don't Tell)  We’ll look at emotional resonance and understand what it means to write with purpose. We'll discover the map of emotions and emotional functions of the five senses and how to use literary devices to deliver and serve the emotional message in the story.

    Week Three: ( Character) We'll start looking at that which is hidden, at the core , layers, and masks our characters put on. We look at core needs and core commitments and how those influence the character’s perspective.  We’ll also look at the purpose of flashbacks and backstory.

    Week Four : (Perspective) Is all about point of view and the narrative voice. We'll explore how those needs and commitments shape perspective ( distance and intimacy)  creating the character's voice that influences  theme, mood, tone and narrative style.

    Week Five: ( Plot) We look at attachment patterns that drive the actions and reactions of our characters. We'll discover emotional movement? What it means to shift.

    Week Six: (Setting) We wrap up by exploring Setting. We'll look at ways to use setting as a mirror to what the character is going through. Setting is the context within which events take shape.

    Who Should Take This Class

    Novelists, memoirists, short story writers, coaches, TLAN artists, and therapists looking for innovative ways to help their patients or clients or anyone suffering from creative blocks. 

    Students should expect to spend 3 hours per week perusing resources and readings, engaging in several writing/creation prompts, and briefly responding to peers’ work. From our interactions, we sustain a welcoming and inspiring community together.

    We offer scholarships based on income as well as some partial scholarships for people living with serious illness and/or disability or people of color through the Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg Fund. Please fill out this scholarship application form so that we can find the best way to make the class accessible to you.

    Format

    This is an online class, hosted on the online teaching platform, Wet Ink, as well as Zoom. The Wet Ink platform allows students to log in on their own time to post comments and critiques directly to authors’ works. You can also view deadlines, track revisions, and watch video or listen to audio. At the end of the class, each student will receive an email that contains an archive of all their content and interactions. Wet Ink is mobile-friendly and their are no browser requirements.

    The course will include five optional zoom classes taking place Saturdays from 1:30-2:30 pm EST.  Because they are optional, the Zoom sessions will not be recorded.

    About the Facilitator

    Riham Adly is an award-winning flash fiction writer from Giza, Egypt. In 2013 her story “The Darker Side of the Moon” won the MAKAN award. She was short-listed several times for the Strand International Flash Fiction Contest. Riham is a Best of the NET and a Pushcart Prize nominee. Her work is included in the “Best Micro-fiction 2020” anthology. Her flash fiction has appeared in over fifty journals such as Litro Magazine, Lost Balloon, The Flash Flood, Bending Genres, The Citron Review, The Sunlight Press, Flash Fiction Magazine, Menacing Hedge, Flash Frontier, Flash Back, Ellipsis Zine, Okay Donkey, and New Flash Fiction Review among others. Riham has worked as an assistant editor in 101 words magazine and as a first reader in Vestal Review magazine. Riham is the founder of the “Let’s Write Short Stories” and “Let’s Write That Novel” in Egypt. She has taught creative writing all over Cairo for over five years with the goal of mentoring and empowering aspiring writers in her region. Riham’s flash fiction collection “Love is Make-Believe” was released and published in November 2021 by Clarendon House Publications in the UK.

    • 30 October 2024
    • 17 December 2024
    • Online
    • 18
    Register


    This thorough introduction to Transformative Language Arts (TLA) encompasses the personal and the global, the contemporary and the historic, and how TLA can be practiced through writing, storytelling, performance, song, and collaborative, expressive and integrated arts.

    We will also explore ethics and considerations for practicing TLA through facilitation, coaching, teaching, and more, with special attention to diversity and inclusion when it comes to bringing more voices to the table.

    Each week includes short readings, a lively discussion, and invigorating writing prompts to help you articulate more of your own TLA callings. The weekly writing prompts and pertinent discussion questions give you room to work and play through what you know, are coming to know, and how this knowledge cross-pollinates with what you do and who you are. Websites, videos and/or podcasts, and essays to engage with, bring you face to face with you real-life expressions of TLA as this field, profession, and calling grows around the world.

    To order a copy of The Power of Words: A TLA Reader (required text for class), please scroll down. 


    This class is required for TLA Foundations Certification.

    Week by Week

    Week One: TLA History, Fields, and Traditions

    An overview of theory and practice, including genres, arts and community practices, ethics, and your own values informing your TLA. Explore TLA in many forms–from poetry therapy to social change theater to healing storytelling–and share what ignites your soul and work. We’ll also look at how we see ourselves in our TLA work and callings and how we’re likely to seen in various communities, and the essential role of self-care in our TLA work and as core to TLA practice.

    Week Two: TLA in Service: Health, Healing, Spirituality, and Personal Growth.

    We’ll explore how TLA can help people find their way home through health or emotional crises or wounds, spiritual callings, and many manner of personal growth. Starting with the personal, and recognizing how the personal is political, we look at ways in which TLA can foster health, healing, and homecoming, and also some of our cultural biases and blindnesses about such directions. Some of this week’s resources will help us see more of the breadth and depth in how TLA can be effective in various religious and spiritual traditions, mainstream and holistic healing practice, and home-grown and psychological counseling as well as for people living with disabilities or serious illnesses.

    Week Three: TLA as Catalyst: Community, Culture, History, and Social Change.

    We’ll look at TLA in relation to community-building, culture-shifting, history-revisioning, and social change, and particularly explore what it means and can mean to be part of various communities. To better understand the time and place where we live now, we’ll also explore TLA as a vehicle for diversity and inclusion, including addressing oppression, marginalization, privilege, and access. Additionally, we’ll look at what it means to practice TLA in ways that foster a community ethic of care (as well as supporting individual self-care).

    Week Four: TLA & Right Livelihood: Ways to Make a Living and a Life.

    What are our callings for how we make a living and how we live a life? We’ll dive into how TLA intersects with our life’s work (whether that work relates to a paycheck, volunteering, creating art or writing, or other aspects of our life), and develop plans for where we’re led to go. We’ll draw from the Buddhist roots of the term “Right Livelihood” to better understand how we can forge good work that makes a positive contribution to our communities and lives.

    Week Five: TLA in Action: Facilitation, Consulting, Collaboration, Coaching, and More.

    Looking at the ethics and facilitation of our work, art, and community involvement, we’ll discuss and write about the specific forms of TLA we do and want to do, and how strong facilitation of TLA – whether in the form of community meetings, writing workshops, collaborative storytelling or theater projects, or one-on-one coaching – requires us to lifelong students of the art of facilitation.

    Week Six: TLA and You: Plans, Visions, and Maps.

    Deepening our plans for the work, art, and community-making ahead, we’ll clarify what’s right for us to pursue next, what support and tools we need along the way, and the future envision. This week will focus on what resources and pathways are around us, and how to best discern our own best ways to move forward.


    Who Should Take This Class

    This class is ideal for a wide variety of people, including professionals who want to infuse TLA into their teaching, counseling, pastoral work, arts collaboration, and community work; community leaders and activists seeking to bring more voice and vision to the table in their communities; and writers, storytellers, performers and other artists who want to develop their facilitation of writing, songwriting, expressive arts, drama therapy and community theater, collaborative arts, storytelling, and integrated arts; and perspective or current students or alumni of TLA studies.

    TLAN offers scholarships based on income as well as some partial scholarships for people living with serious illness and/or disability or people of color through the Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg Fund. Please fill out this scholarship application form so that we can find the best way to make the class accessible to you.

    Format

    This is an online class which will be taught via the online platform, Wet Ink. Each week, a new week will open full of resources, reflections, discussion questions, and writing prompts.

    Students should expect to spend a minimum 4-6 hours per week perusing resources and readings, answering a discussion question, engaging in several writing prompts, and responding to peers’ work. From our interactions, we sustain a welcoming and inspiring community together.

    We will also have three optional 60-minute Zoom sessions at 1:30 p.m. ET | 12:30 CT | 11:30 a.m. MT | 10:30 a.m. PT | 6:30 p.m. UTC on Saturday, November 2, 23 and December 14. (Sessions will be recorded and available only for class participants).

    Required Text: The Power of Words: A Transformative Language Arts Reader, edited by Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg and Janet Tallman. You can purchase the text on Amazon.

    Supplemental Text: Transformative Language Arts in Action, edited by Ruth. A. Farmer and Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg. You can purchase this text on Amazon or Rowman and Littlefield

    About the Facilitators

    Amanda Faye Lacson (she/hers) is a Filipina-American writer, photographer and historian. She examines how our identities are shaped, how they impact the way we move in the world, and how we write our history through her creative nonfiction and playwriting; photography documenting the artistic process; oral history-oriented podcast interviewing; and by creating and facilitating community-based workshops for the family historian. Amanda is a board member and Membership co-chair of the Transformative Language Arts Network; writer, performer and director with the Playful Substance theater company; and producer, host and editor of Goddard in the World Podcast. She is also the founder of FamilyArchive Business, a studio designed to support the family historian at any point in the archiving process, from organizing photos in boxes to creating a final product to share with the family.

    Recent projects include: writing and performing work based on her experience as a Pinay child and mother in the devised theater piece Raised Pinay: The 5th Generation; presenting a generative writing workshop on using Transformative Language Arts to create and deepen one’s family archive at the TLAN Power of Words conference; writing a satirical monologue from the perspective of Christopher Columbus reckoning with his legacy in the afterlife, for Playful Substance; and photographing classical Indian dance performance by Brooklyn Raga Massive for Chelsea Factory. Keep up with Amanda's work at amandafayelacson.com.

    Tracie Nichols (she/her) is a Transformative Language Artist, poet, and facilitator helping people write themselves home through her ongoing writing circles and writing workshops nurturing personal awareness, resilience, and transformation. Founder of the Saturday Writing Circle and co-founder of Embodied Writers, she currently also serves as the Coordinator for the Transformative Language Arts Network.

    Tracie’s appreciation for the power of words to heal and transform started decades ago when she began writing poems because her arms ached from holding the unflinching truth of violence in one hand and the equally unflinching truth of compassion in the other. She realized she'd found home with the Transformative Language Arts Network community when she realized it merged the principles of her graduate degree in Transformative Learning and Change with her passion for writing as path to healing and growth.

    Today, she lives in southeastern Pennsylvania with her husband, occasionally her adult children, and a very large ginger tabby cat named Strider, writing poems from her tiny desk under the wide reach of two old Sycamore trees. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Rogue AgentText Power Telling, kerning and The Weight of Motherhood anthology.

    Connect with Tracie at tracienichols.com.

    • 30 October 2024
    • 7:00 PM
    • 11 December 2024
    • 9:00 PM
    • Online
    • 9
    Register


    There’s beauty and meaning to mine from your life story...

    and this workshop will help you artistically express what you’ve overcome and achieved, and creatively share your experience to benefit others through the medium of theatre.

    Join Kelly DuMar for a six-week Play Lab plus a Performance Showcase on December 11, 2024!

    This six-week webinar is designed for new & experienced writers to write dynamic short monologues for the stage.

    Participants will generate & polish new monologues that are ready to be performed as staged readings in showcase, (online with audience) and submitted to play festivals and publishers.

    Our primary way of working will be a weekly LIVE ZOOM WEBINAR PLAY LAB experience.

    Writers will bring DRAFTS of new monologues to be read out loud (by guest actors) and discussed for feedback & revision. The course culminates in a Showcase of works in process, performed by actors, via Zoom on Dec. 11, 2024 7-8:30 p.m. ET (UTC-5) / 6-7:30 CT/ 5-6:30 MT/ 4-5:30 PT.

    PLEASE NOTE: The WEEKLY PLAY LABS WILL take place Wednesdays from 7-9 p.m. ET on Zoom:

    • Oct. 30
    • Nov. 6
    • Nov. 13
    • Nov. 20
    • (There will be no meeting on Wednesday, November 27.)
    • Dec. 4  

    THE SHOWCASE IS THE 6TH week—Dec. 11 from 7-8:30 p.m. ET (UTC-5) / 6-7:30 CT/ 5-6:30 MT/ 4-5:30 PT.All play labs are recorded and the recording is shared the next day for all who cannot attend.

    Overview:

    There’s beauty and meaning to mine from your life story, and this workshop will help you artistically express what you’ve overcome and achieved, and creatively share your experience to benefit others through the medium of theatre. You’ll learn how to write successful dramatic monologues based on your life that are personally meaningful, emotionally satisfying, and relevant and engaging for an audience. In class, through thematic writing prompts and creative exploration, you’ll develop your ordinary and extraordinary life experiences into powerful, dramatic monologues that can be performed – by you or an actor – with universal appeal. In class meetings will present elements of dramatic structure and explore the artistic qualities necessary for an effective dramatic monologue.

    We’ll explore the role of conflict, plot, communicating subtext, voice, narrative, and the importance of set-up. New writing will be generated in and out of class, shared in class and aspects of revision will be presented and practiced.

    SPECIAL FEATURE: The course will culminate in an online SHOWCASE of works in progress generated by participants, featuring readings by actors, on Dec. 11, 2024 7-8:30 p.m. ET (UTC-5) / 6-7:30 CT/ 5-6:30 MT/ 4-5:30 PT.

    “Memoir as Monologue taught me the power of my own story. Kelly’s guidance on creating effective drama, her concrete feedback on improving my work, the nurturing environment she created for participants and the excellent resources she brought to the table opened a whole new world for me. This was one of the most effective online classes I’ve taken.”—Diane Glass, 2016 class member.

    Read an interview here with Kelly on this dynamic class. 

    Week by Week 

    Week One: Memoir vs. Monologue: How Dramatic Writing Makes the Leap from Page to Stage

    All kinds of expressive writing, from diary/journal writing to memoir to poetry, foster healing and personal growth. Writing for the stage offers a uniquely imaginative process for healing and transformation as well. We’ll explore how writing for the stage differs from writing a memoir or personal essay. You’ll learn tools for adapting personal story for dramatic writing as a theatrical experience that engages an audience. Elements of dramatic structure will be introduced.

    Week Two: The Art of Crafting Set-Up

    We’ll explore taking a short piece of memoir and shaping it theatrically, focusing on developing an effective dramatic set-up. Crafting an effective monologue  set up involves imagination and immediacy, a distinctive voice, cohesive narrative structure, meaningful theme, and cohesive plot. We’ll explore personal themes of life choices, mistakes, roads taken and not taken, encountering internal and external obstacles, new beginnings, thresholds, rites of passage as the source for crafting dramatic monologues.

    Week Three: Conflict – Experiencing Obstacles, Crafting Resilience

    Conflict is a universal experience, a fact of life, and a necessary element of dramatic writing. How we meet it, how we shape it, how we share it is the stuff of wise living and great storytelling. We’ll experiment and explore conflict as a personal encounter and literary device and as a necessary stage of any journey toward wholeness. This session will explore how to artistically construct compelling narratives from personal conflicts, shaping the experience of resilience to involve and inspire an audience.

    Week Four: Showing Versus Telling – Voice as a Vehicle for Dramatic Action

    The memoir writer uses written description and authorial narration to illustrate setting, character, internal thoughts, external actions, feelings, motivations, needs, conflicts and consequences. The dramatic writer of monologue must craft, from the voice of a single character/speaker, compelling speech and gesture to show, rather than tell a story. We’ll explore how monologue presents a speaker’s needs, motivation and conflict in a way that involves the audience by establishing a “willing suspension of disbelief.”

    Week Five: Creative Tools for Revising & Fine-Tuning

    Focus on how the process of revision moves from page to stage - and stage back to page; additional thematic writing prompts for use with writing already generated in class; discussing strategies for going deeper; dealing with creative blocks and putting it all together – theme, arc, voice, stagecraft.

    Week Six: The Art of Collaboration – Presenting Your Monologue

    Whether or not you plan on personally performing your dramatic monologue or putting it in the hands of an actor, your writing will take on additional dimension in the journey toward sharing it with an audience. We’ll explore aspects of collaborating with a director, an actor, a designer, producer or publisher in the process of reaching an audience as well as resources for finding potential collaborators.

    Who Should Take This Class

    This class is ideal for people who do word arts–writing, storytelling, spoken word, theater, and other forms of TLA–and are ready to put themselves out there more in the world and in their work. Because of the innovative exercises and engaging discussions, this class would be very appropriate for both new and seasoned word artists who want to learn more, and find greater community together.

    This is a webinar with weekly Zoom meetings Wednesday nights, 7-9 p.m. ET starting Oct. 30, 2024. (There will be no meeting on Wednesday, November 27.)

    PLEASE NOTE: THERE IS AN ADDITIONAL ONLINE SHOWCASE where works in progress will be presented as readings, and performed by trained actors, on Dec. 11, 2024 7-8:30 p.m. ET (UTC-5) / 6-7:30 CT/ 5-6:30 MT/ 4-5:30 PT.

    TLAN offers scholarships based on income as well as some partial scholarships for people living with serious illness and/or disability or people of color through the Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg Fund. Please fill out this scholarship application form so that we can find the best way to make the class accessible to you.

    Format

    Each week will consist of engaging content designed to spark personal reflection, discussion and dynamic writing. The weekly play labs will take place Wednesdays, Oct. 30, Nov. 6, 13, 20, and Dec. 4 from 7-9 p.m. ET on Zoom. THE SHOWCASE IS THE 6TH week—Dec. 11 from 7-8:30 p.m. ET. All play labs are recorded and the recording is shared the next day for all who cannot attend.

    Participants should expect to spend no more than 2 hours or so on the weekly writing prompt, revisions, reading and commenting on the work of others, viewing and participating in live discussion, and sharing works in progress live. We’ll create a safe and supportive environment, offering respectful support that inspires the development of every writer’s voice.


    About the Teacher

    Kelly DuMar, M.Ed. is a poet, playwright, and workshop leader who generates enlivening writing experiences for new and experienced writers. This is the fifth time Kelly has offered this monologue class for TLAN. Author of three poetry collections, girl in tree bark, Tree of the Apple, and All These Cures, Kelly is also author of Before You Forget— The Wisdom of Writing Diaries for Your Children. Kelly’s award winning plays have been produced around the US and Canada, and are published by dramatic publishers. She founded and produced the Our Voices Festival of Women Playwrights at Wellesley College for twelve years, and she is a past president of Playwright's Platform, Boston. For the past five years, Kelly has led the week-long Play Lab Intensive at the annual conference of the International Women's Writing Guild. Kelly is a certified psychodramatist, former psychotherapist, and Fellow in the American Society for Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama. She founded Let’s Talk TLA, a bi-monthly tele-conference and poetry open mic for members of the Transformative Language Arts Association. Currently, Kelly serves on the board & faculty of The International Women’s Writing Guild. Kelly inspires readers of #NewThisDay - her daily photo-inspired blog - with her mindful reflections on a writing life. You can learn more about Kelly, at www.kellydumar.com.

    • 02 November 2024
    • 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
    • online
    • 10
    Register


    You know those times when life grabs you and shakes you like a snow globe then stretches you batwing thin across too many and too much?

    This process is for those times. 

    As word-loving creators, we turn to language to help us make sense of both our inner and outer worlds. But what happens when life is hard and crafting a poem or other piece feels like a blank page too far? That’s where this practice reaches out a gentle tendril and won’t let you fall. 


    "I started this practice because I was overwhelmed by the demands of managing both my neurodivergence and menopause while learning a new job, and in the background was a constant hum of grief for a struggling family member. My attention was tattered. Noticing only happened in fragments. My writing was constrained to torn corners of time." —Tracie Nichols


    This practice invites us to:

    • connect to creativity in times of overwhelm.
    • create without needing to generate new writing.
    • think about making poems in a different way—more collage or mosaic than essay or novel.

    While it's oriented toward generating poems, it can be used to assemble the seeds for flash fiction, creative nonfiction, short stories, plays, monologues, songs—any form of word artistry.

    This two-hour Zoom class is generative.

    You will emerge with a collection of your own poem seeds—perhaps even a nascent poem or story—and your own version of this process to use when life is hard.

    Who Should Take This Class

    This process is especially helpful for:

    • anyone who needs reminding that, no matter how stretched-thin they are, their word artistry is still with them—still there to support and nourish them.
    • writers and poets (aspiring or established) with limited time and, more importantly, limited headspace, who need to engage with language in the brief moments life allows. 

    Format

    This class will be presented Saturday, November 2, 2024 from 3-5 PM ET/ 2-4 PM CT/ 1-3 PM MT/ 12-2 PM PT / 8-10 PM UTC as a one-time, two-hour Zoom session. The day after class a recording, as well as notes and resources from the class, will be emailed to class members. 

    About the Facilitator

    Tracie Nichols is a Transformative Language Artist poet, and facilitator helping people write themselves home through writing circles and writing workshops nurturing personal awareness, resilience, and transformation. Putting her master’s degree in Transformative Learning and Change to good use over the past two decades, Tracie has designed and facilitated hundreds of virtual and in-person learning experiences for people seeking personal transformation and growth. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Rogue Agent and Text Power Telling and kerning. You can connect with her at TracieNichols.com or on Substack

    • 06 November 2024
    • 10 December 2024
    • Online
    • 20
    Register


    Integrate what you've learned on your life's creative adventures (so far!)

    Join us in another messy, magical, creative adventure of expressive writing, intuitive collage-making, mixed-media explorations, and spontaneous happenings. It doesn’t matter whether you dabble with watercolor or decorate cupcakes, write poetry or prose, or can’t draw a stick figure to save your sister — kissing the muse can illuminate your creative path to happiness and help you navigate along the way.  

    The muse is a mirror of your authentic Self, reflecting your innate wisdom and creative power to manifest positive change. By creatively kissing the muse, you fully embrace this truth: YOU are the artist of your own life.

    This course guides you through a process of CREATIVE REBIRTH, starting with the Hopeful Healing Muse, who sparks an "Enlightening Epiphany." You'll integrate what you've learned on your life's creative adventures (so far!) and emerge transformed at the end of the course, ready to share your unique gifts with the world. 

    Each week, you'll creatively "kiss" a different archetypal muse to explore a particular phase in the universal cycle of change. Approach each encounter as playfully or seriously as you would any romantic entanglement: FLIRT with Words to find out what makes your muse want to sing; tease an idea with a Mixed-Media TICKLE; rekindle your sparkle on a spontaneous MUSE DATE; and gain insight whenever your life changes course—or needs to—through a KISS & TELL RITUAL.

    Whatever your passion or commitment to pursue it, kissing your muse fans the flame. By consciously cultivating a closer relationship through your creative practice, your bold visions, heartfelt values, sacred truths, and wildest dreams will unfold intuitively, organically, and tangibly.     

    So grab a glue stick, pen, and paintbrush, and pucker up — the magic is about to begin!

    **INSTRUCTOR'S NOTE:

    Throughout this course, I use the feminine pronouns "she/her/hers" to invoke the muse and suggest the inward-focused “heroine’s” journey often experienced by writers and artists. Please feel free to replace them with your muse-appropriate pronouns and experiment with all the alternatives.

    Week by Week

    Week 1: Phase: Enlightening Epiphany — Kiss Your Hopeful Healing Muse

     "Rejuvenate and illuminate new possibilities."

    • Kiss & Tell Ritual for Hopeful Healing Muse
    • Reading, poetry, and Creative Kisses to inspire and support the Enlightening Epiphany phase.
    • Live Group Call - Nov. 10

    Week 2: Phase: Determined Return —  Kiss Your Cosmic Comeback Muse

    “Infuse the mundane with your magic."

    • Kiss & Tell Ritual for Cosmic Comeback Muse
    • Reading, poetry, and Creative Kisses to inspire and support the Determined Return phase.

    Week 3: Phase:  Transformative Test — Kiss Your Warrior of Love Muse

     "Draw on your heart's strength."

    • Kiss & Tell Ritual for Warrior of Love Muse.
    • Reading, poetry, and Creative Kisses to inspire and support the Transformative Test phase.

    Week 4: Phase:  Sharing the Elixir — Kiss Your Luminous Luna Muse

     "Shine your light."

    • Kiss & Tell Ritual for Luminous Luna Muse
    • Reading, poetry, and prompts to inspire and support the Sharing the Elixer phase.
    • Live Group Call - Dec. 8

    Who Should Take This Class

    Designed for creatives from all walks of life, this course is an inspiring, safe space to explore and express your artistic voice through a variety of mediums. Through an inventive method of self-inquiry, participants embark on a personal journey of transformation and integrate insights into their own creative practice and projects. Open to all arts disciplines, writing skill levels and genres.

    We offer scholarships based on income as well as some partial scholarships for people living with serious illness and/or disability or people of color through the Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg Fund. Please fill out this scholarship application form so that we can find the best way to make the class accessible to you.

    Format

    This is an online class, hosted on the online teaching platform Wet Ink. The day before class begins, you will receive an email invitation from Wet Ink. There are no browser requirements, and Wet Ink is mobile-friendly. The Wet Ink platform allows you to log in and complete the coursework on your own time. Coursework for each week will be posted by 6:00 AM EDT each Wednesday beginning November 6, 2024. 

    Live Group Calls (Zoom):

    • Sunday, November 10, 2024 from 9-11 a.m. PST | 12-2 p.m. EST | 5-7 p.m. UTC
    • Sunday, December 8, 2024 from 9-11 a.m. PST | 12-2 p.m. EST | 5-7 p.m. UTC
    • Sessions will be recorded and made available only to the class. 

    About the Facilitator

    Kissing the Muse Creative Adventures Founder, Robbyn Layne is a writer, creative producer, and transformative teaching artist. A copywriter by trade, she moonlights as a messy, magical muse on the side (or vice versa), inspiring and empowering everyone she encounters to embrace and express their authentic creativity through art-making, collaborations and stories.

    She's the author of the hybrid memoir/course, "Kissing the Muse: A Messy, Magical Creative Adventure" and the creator of "The Messy, Magical Muse" a colorful, creativity-sparking card deck. Robbyn holds an MFA in New Practices (painting and cinema) from San Francisco State University and an MA in Transpersonal Counseling Psychology from John F. Kennedy University. She currently lives in Amsterdam with her British love, a Dutch tuxedo cat, and an Aussie Doodle named Zigy.


    • 18 November 2024
    • 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
    • online
    • 23
    Register


    We welcome you to a one-time session where we’ll use Playback Theatre and Embodied Empathy to explore the experience of neurodivergence.

    First, enjoy a 60-min. experience of Playback Theatre with performers from the Boston-based Playback company, True Story Theater. 

    Playback is an improvised performance art that is used in over 70 countries to support personal and social transformation. Volunteers from the audience will spontaneously share moments from their lives that relate to the theme of neurodivergence–their own, or of people they connect with in their roles as artists, parents, healers, or teachers.  On the spot, performers will respectfully and empathetically reflect back the emotional essence of what was shared using movement, music, and dialogue.  Come to just watch, or to share your thoughts, feelings and experiences on the theme. Laugh, cry, and gain insights about this important and often-hidden identity.  

    Come see how a show works.

    See also PlaybackNorthAmerica.com

    Afterwards, process your experience of the performance through a 50-minute mini-workshop on Embodied Empathy. 

    Embodied Empathy is a simplified version of Playback that you can use in your daily life with friends, family, students and clients.   Learn tools you can easily bring into your relationships to amplify delight, creativity, and connection. 


    All about Embodied Empathy.

    Who Should Take This Class

    All who want to better understand and have more compassion for differences (related to how we process our experience in the world) and different types of neurodivergence. Also, anyone looking to learn creative, embodied tools for deep listening.

    Format

    This class will be presented Monday, November 18, 2024 from 7-9 PM ET/ 6-8 PM CT/ 5-7 PM MT/ 4-6 PM PT / 12-2 AM UTC as a one-time, two-hour Zoom session and will be recorded for anyone who cannot attend live.

    About the Facilitator

    Christopher loves teaching and has four decades of experience leading interactive workshops. With True Story Training, he has co-led over 100 workshops and classes, many on telling your own story, as well as on active bystander intervention and cross-ideological dialogue skills.  With his wife Anne, he has co-authored ten books--on relationship skills, on playful practices, and on many aspects of Playback Theatre. Feel free to contact Christopher and Anne: connect@playback northamerica.com.

    • 08 December 2024
    • 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM
    • Zoom meeting - link to be shared
    Register


    TLA Network Virtual Salon

    Sunday, December 8, 2024

    Join Us!

    5:00–6:30 pm EDT (UTC-4)

    4:00–5:30 pm CDT // 3:00–4:30 pm MDT // 2:00–3:30 pm PDT // 9:00-10:30 pm UTC

    Click here to find your timezone.


    Our Virtual Salons feature TLAN members who all use the written, spoken, or sung word for personal and community transformation. TLAN members have incredibly generous spirits, and we are excited to provide a venue to feature their artistic work.

    The Transformative Language Arts Network (TLAN) virtual salons feature presenters who are active members of TLAN. Each presenter will have 5-7 minutes to present their written, spoken, or sung work followed by a brief period of audience response. 

    Potential Presenters: To present at the Virtual Salon you must be an active member of TLAN. Active members are current on their dues. (Check on your membership status or re-join TLAN.)

    If you are interested in presenting at the December Virtual Salon, please fill out the Google Form. If we have a multitude of entries we may have to feature you at a future salon. 

    Audience members: Registration is FREE and open to anyone, not just members of TLAN and will take place online via Zoom. 

    After the reading, there will be an artist talkback and time for questions and engagement from the audience. 

    You must register if you would like to attend: a Zoom link will be sent to all registrants the day before the event. We look forward to seeing you there!



    Our Presenters!

    Announced soon. Will you be one of them?


    • 15 January 2025
    • 11 March 2025
    • Online
    • 19
    Register


    Medicine desperately needs the arts.

    But artists can be quickly rejected when they don’t understand the culture of medicine and how doctors think.

    Our aim is to provide language and visual artists with sufficient understanding of the culture of medicine that they can interact with physicians and other health professionals to bring the arts into patient care and the environment of medicine.

    We also want to expose health care practitioners to the world of the artist to better understand how to interact with artists to improve patient care and also for their personal benefit.

    Health care practitioners work within implicit stories that are largely not understood or examined by them. Through engaging with the arts, they can become more aware of these stories and able to reflect upon how they might change their stories to provide better patient care and also to nurture themselves and prevent personal burnout.

    Medicine desperately needs the arts, but artists can be quickly rejected when they don’t understand the culture of medicine and how doctors think. To forestall that quick rejection, doctors need to understand how artists think.

    Rita Charon of Columbia University has written about the importance of health care practitioners writing stories about their patients and their patient encounters.

    • Poetry and the visual arts provide other means for becoming aware of feelings, beliefs, and biases.
    • Improved language arts skills help physicians to find the metaphors of their patients’ illnesses.

    We will finish the course by inviting participants to write a proposal for how they could bring their art into a health care setting within their environment. We hope they will present this proposal and make a positive contribution to that setting.

    Week by Week

    Week 1. Introduction to the arts in medicine with examples of successful interactions and programs.

    Week 2. How do doctors think?

    Week 3. How do artists think?

    Week 4. What are the constraints existing in health care settings that make it hard to introduce the arts.

    Week 5. Telling stories about patients – writing fiction and creative non-fiction.

    Week 6. Poetry and medicine

    Week 7. Bringing the Visual Arts into medicine

    Week 8. Discussing projects that could be proposed into health care settings in participants’ neighborhoods.

    Who Should Take This Class

    We are interested in attracting artists of all types who want to bring their art into medicine. We also want to attract health care practitioners who are open to the arts and want more exposure to the arts and how they can use the arts in patient care and for their own personal growth and well-being.

    We hope to create an opportunity for interactions within the live part of the class and also on the discussion board among health care practitioners and artists.

    TLAN offers scholarships based on income as well as some partial scholarships for people living with serious illness and/or disability or people of color through the Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg Fund. Please fill out this scholarship application form so that we can find the best way to make the class accessible to you.

    Format

    This is a hybrid online class, conducted through Zoom meetings and the online classroom Wet Ink.

    Zoom meetings are scheduled for 4:30 pm Eastern time on Tuesdays. Sessions will be recorded and made available only to the class. 

    Online readings and an asynchronous discussion board will be hosted on the online teaching platform Wet Ink. The day before class begins, you will receive an email invitation from Wet Ink. There are no browser requirements, and Wet Ink is mobile-friendly. The Wet Ink platform allows you to log in and complete the coursework on your own time. 

    About the Facilitators

    Lewis Mehl-Madrona is a practicing physician and a writer of creative nonfiction, poetry, and fiction. He studied creative writing at Indiana University and then attended Stanford University School of Medicine. He finished his postgraduate medical training in family medicine and in psychiatry at the University of Vermont. He completed the Novel Writing Certificate Program at Stanford University and has a first novel that is in process of being published. He has also published poetry, photography, and short fiction. He wrote Coyote Medicine, Coyote Healing, and Coyote Wisdom, a trilogy of stories about healing with traditional elders. 

    Barbara Mainguy studied philosophy at the University of Toronto, Creative Arts Therapy at Concordia University, and received a Master of Social Work from the University of Maine. She practices psychotherapy with the tribes of Maine. Barbara completed a certificate program in the Arts and Medicine at the University of Maine, which Lewis helped co-create.

    • 02 October 2025
    • 05 October 2025
    • Unity Village, 1900 NW Blue Parkway, Unity Village, Missouri
    Register


    Join the Power of Words Conference to explore the written, spoken and sung word to find how it can bring liberation, celebration and transformation within our communities. 

    Network with writers, storytellers, performers, musicians, health professionals, educators, and change-makers to connect with those who share your passion of making a difference with words.   

    Discover diversity and experience visionary voices at keynote sessions. Get inspired with workshops in five areas:  Social Transformation, Right Livelihood, Engaged Spirituality, Narrative Healing and Ecological TLA.

    Your pre-sale registration payment includes main conference events only. Meal plans will be sold separately.

    Lodging and pre-conference events are an additional charge.

    Lodging & Travel

    We are meeting at the beautiful and welcoming Unity Village in Kansas City, Missouri, U.S. 

    PLEASE NOTE OUR REGISTRATION CANCELLATION POLICY:

    If you need to cancel your registration, please refer to the following schedule.

    • Aug. 14, 2025: Last day for full refund, transfer, or credit, minus $20 processing fee
    • Sept. 11, 2025: Last day for 75% refund, transfer, or credit, minus $20 processing fee

    No refunds, transfers, or credits issued after SEPTEMBER 11, 2025. (In the case of unexpected life circumstances—such as hospitalization or death in the family—contact us and we will try to do what we can.)

Past Classes

26 September 2024 Celebration with Midwest Poets Laureate: An evening with the Power of Words
14 August 2024 How to Design and Facilitate On-Line Classes // with Caryn Mirriam Goldberg and Joy Roulier Sawyer
11 August 2024 TLA Network Virtual Salon
15 June 2024 A Banquet of Transformative Language Arts!
05 June 2024 Writing Hard Things: Approaching Difficult Topics with Sensitivity and Candor // with Autumn Konopka
04 May 2024 How to Write About Life's Hard Stuff // with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
20 March 2024 Foundations of Facilitation // with Amanda Faye Lacson & Tracie Nichols
20 March 2024 Talk To Me Nice: Using The Word as a Healing Modality // with Zena Robinson-Wouadjou
06 March 2024 Real Talk: Writing Intergenerational Dialogue // with Lyndsey Ellis
06 March 2024 15 Poets to Open Your Heart and Writing // with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
06 March 2024 Storytelling and Therapeutic Persuasion // with Lewis Mehl-Madrona and Barbara Mainguy
24 January 2024 Kissing the Muse: A Messy, Magical, Creative Adventure (part 1) \\ with Robbyn Layne
10 January 2024 Flash Fiction Forms: Exploring Elements of Craft Through Archetypes & Metaphors in Dreams, Tarot, & Fairy Tales // with Riham Adly
07 January 2024 Building Connections to Create Sustainable Work in the Arts // with Caryn-Mirriam Goldberg & Kathryn Lorenzen
03 December 2023 Monologue Showcase: Voices for Healing & Transformation
26 October 2023 Your Memoir as Monologue - with Showcase: Writing Monologues for Healing and Transformation // with Kelly DuMar
25 October 2023 Identity and Belonging: An Exploration through Visual Art and Creative Writing // with Renu Thomas
25 October 2023 Journaling the Heroine’s Journey // with Kate Farrell
23 October 2023 TLA Network Global Virtual Salon
09 September 2023 Wounds of Wisdom // with Anjana Deshpande
06 September 2023 Telling It Slant: The Art of Autofiction // with Elizabeth Chesla
06 September 2023 & They Call Us Crazy: Outsider Writing to Cross the Borders of Human Imagination // with Caits Meissner
06 September 2023 Liminal Spaces: The Poetry of Transitions and Change // with Angie Ebba
15 August 2023 TLA Network Virtual Global Salon
13 August 2023 Leading Transformative Writing Workshops // with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg & Joy Roulier Sawyer
25 June 2023 TLA Network Virtual Salon
07 June 2023 Twelve Poets to Change Your Life // with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
07 June 2023 Flash Fiction: Writing from the Subconscious // with Riham Adly
15 March 2023 Changing the World with Words: TLA Foundations // with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
27 January 2023 What Next? Launching Your Work in the World // with Caits Meissner
18 January 2023 This is Who I Am: Exploring Personal Identity through Poetry and Art // with Angie Ebba
18 January 2023 Flash Fiction Forms: Exploring Elements of Craft Through Archetypes & Metaphors in Dreams, Tarot, & Fairy Tales // with Riham Adly
18 January 2023 Pathways to Wholeness: Mindful Writing Toward Momentous Leaps of Meaning // with Marianela Medrano
04 December 2022 Re-Visioning TLA in the World: A Community Conversation
03 December 2022 Your Calling, Your Livelihood, Your Life: Making a Living from TLA // with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg & Kathern Lorenzen
26 October 2022 Identity and Belonging: An Exploration through Visual Art and Creative Writing // with Renu Thomas
12 October 2022 Monologue Showcase: Voices for Healing & Transformation
15 September 2022 Flash Fiction Showcase & Open Mic with Riham Adly & Friends
14 September 2022 Beyond the Hero’s Journey: Exploring the Paths of the Heroine, Healer, and Seeker // with Kimberly Lee
07 September 2022 Your Memoir as Monologue - with Showcase: Writing Monologues for Healing and Transformation // with Kelly DuMar
15 June 2022 How Pictures Heal: Expressive Writing from Personal Photos // with Kelly DuMar
15 June 2022 Leverage Your TLA Expertise as a Social Arts Practice, for Community Engagement, & Radical Livelihood // with Yvette Hyater-Adams
18 May 2022 Flash Fiction: Writing from the Subconscious // with Riham Adly
20 April 2022 & They Call Us Crazy: Outsider Writing to Cross the Borders of Human Imagination // with Caits Meissner
09 April 2022 What Is Your Poem Begging to Look Like? Finding the Best Form Through Revision: How to Take Your Expressive Writing to the Next Level // with Fleda Brown
16 February 2022 Not Enough Spoons: Writing About Disability & Chronic Illness // with Angie Ebba
14 January 2022 The Quest of Purposeful Memoir: Exploring the Past, Creating the Future // with Jennifer Browdy, PhD
12 January 2022 Grief Pages: Moving Through Change and Loss with a Creative Notebook Practice // with Lisa Chu
17 November 2021 Pathways to Wholeness: Mindful Writing Toward Momentous Leaps of Meaning // with Marianela Medrano
10 November 2021 Kissing the Muse: A Messy, Magical, Art-Making Adventure // with Robbyn Layne McGill
28 October 2021 Monologue Showcase: Voices of Healing & Transformation
28 October 2021 2021 Power of Words Conference
15 September 2021 Your Memoir as Monologue with Showcase: Writing Monologues for Healing and Transformation // with Kelly DuMar
30 August 2021 For the Love of it: A Mindful Moment of Rejuvenation for Educators // with Joanna Tebbs Young
07 July 2021 Future Casting: Writing Towards a Just World Vision // with Caits Meissner
02 June 2021 The Art of Facilitation: Facilitating for Change & Community // with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg & Joy Roulier Sawyer
17 May 2021 Tools for Teachers: Creating a Strong TLA Course Curriculum // with Liz Burke, EdD
26 April 2021 Tools for Teachers: Marketing Your TLA Class // with Liz Burke, EdD
18 April 2021 Monologue Showcase: Voices of Change
05 April 2021 Tools for Teachers: Creating a Strong TLA Course Proposal // with Liz Burke, EdD
24 March 2021 Tools for Teachers: Creating a Strong TLA Course Curriculum // with Liz Burke, EdD
24 February 2021 Tools for Teachers: Marketing Your TLA Class // with Liz Burke, EdD
03 February 2021 Tools for Teachers: Creating a Strong TLA Course Proposal // with Liz Burke, EdD
03 February 2021 Your Memoir as Monologue: Writing Monologues for Healing and Transformation // with Kelly DuMar
20 January 2021 Fantastic Folktales & Visionary Angles to Transform Our Stories // with Lyn Ford
06 January 2021 Kissing the Muse: (Another) Messy, Magical, Art-Making Adventure // with Robbyn Layne McGill
09 December 2020 TLA in Action: Connection, Collaboration, & Community
05 December 2020 Fireside Tales: A Virtual Camp In // with Lyn Ford
04 December 2020 A Virtual Greenhouse: Cultivating, Nurturing, and Sustaining Creative Growth through Literary Friendship
04 November 2020 Leverage Your Expertise as a Social Arts Practice, for Community Engagement, and Radical Livelihood // with Yvette Angelique Hyater-Adams
28 October 2020 The Art of Facilitation: Roots and Blossoms of Facilitation // with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg & Joy Roulier Sawyer
18 October 2020 Writing to this Moment: Taking Uncertainty to the Page // with Joanna Tebbs Young, MA-TLA
14 October 2020 Kissing the Muse: A Messy, Magical, Art-Making Adventure // with Robbyn Layne McGill
23 September 2020 How Pictures Heal: Expressive Writing from Personal Photos // with Kelly DuMar
05 August 2020 Pathways to Wholeness: Mindful Writing Toward Momentous Leaps of Meaning // with Marianela Medrano
24 June 2020 The Art of Facilitation: Facilitating for Change & Community // with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg & Joy Roulier Sawyer
24 June 2020 & They Call Us Crazy: Outsider Writing to Cross the Borders of Human Imagination // with Caits Meissner
25 March 2020 Changing the World with Words: TLA Foundations // with Joanna Tebbs-Young
25 March 2020 The Elemental Journey of Purposeful Memoir // with Jennifer Browdy, PhD
15 January 2020 Your Memoir as Monologue: Writing Monologues for Healing and Transformation // with Kelly DuMar
15 January 2020 The Art of Facilitation: Roots and Blossoms of Facilitation // with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg & Joy Roulier Sawyer
23 October 2019 15 Poets to Change Your Life & Spark Your Writing // with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
23 October 2019 Poems As Prayers: Writing Towards a Just World // with Caits Meissner
04 September 2019 Speaking Your Truth: Creative Writing in Political Times // with Angie Ebba
26 June 2019 15 Poets to Change Your Life & Spark Your Writing // with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
24 April 2019 Changing the World with Words: TLA Foundations // with Joanna Tebbs-Young
06 March 2019 Fantastic Folktales & Visionary Angles to Transform Our Stories // with Lyn Ford
16 January 2019 How Pictures Heal: Honoring Memory & Loss through Expressive Writing from Personal Photos // with Kelly DuMar
24 October 2018 Coming Home to Body, Earth, and Time: Writing From Where We Live // with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
24 October 2018 Leverage Your TLA Expertise for Publication, Community, Business, and Livelihood // with Yvette Hyater-Adams
05 September 2018 Cultivating Our Voices: Writing Life Stories for Change // with Dr. Liz Burke-Cravens
05 September 2018 The Five Senses and Four Elements: Connecting With the Body and Nature Through Poetry // with Angie Ebba
27 June 2018 Wound Dwelling: Writing the Survivor Body(ies) // with Jennye Patterson
27 June 2018 Changing the World with Words: TLA Foundations // with Joanna Tebbs-Young
27 June 2018 & They Call Us Crazy: Outsider Writing to Cross the Borders of Human Imagination // with Caits Meissner
16 May 2018 Values of the Future Through Transformative Language Arts // with Doug Lipman
04 April 2018 Stories with Spirit: Creativity as a Spiritual Practice // with Regi Carpenter
14 March 2018 Writing for Social Change: Redream a Just World // with Anya Achtenberg
21 February 2018 Funding Transformation: Grant Writing for Storytellers, Writers, Artists, Educators, & Activists // with Diane Silver
10 January 2018 Fantastic Folktales & Visionary Angles to Transform Our Stories // with Lyn Ford
18 October 2017 Writing Our Lives: The Poetic Self & Transformation // with Dr. Liz Burke-Cravens
18 October 2017 Changing the World with Words: TLA Foundations // with Joanna Tebbs-Young
06 September 2017 Your Memoir as Monologue: How to Create Dynamic Dramatic Monologues About Healing and Transformation for Performance // with Kelly DuMar
06 September 2017 Wound Dwelling: Writing the Survivor Body(ies) // with Jennifer Patterson
14 June 2017 The Five Senses and Four Elements: Connecting with the Body and Nature Through Poetry // with Angie River
14 June 2017 The Poetics of Witness: Writing Beyond the Self // with Caits Meissner
19 April 2017 Diving and Emerging: Finding Your Voice and Identity in Personal Stories // with Regi Carpenter
01 March 2017 Changing the World with Words: TLA Foundations // with Joanna Tebbs-Young
01 March 2017 How Pictures Heal: Honoring Memory & Loss through Expressive Writing from Personal Photos // with Kelly DuMar
11 January 2017 Values of the Future Through Transformative Language Arts // with Doug Lipman
11 January 2017 Writing from the Root & Through the Body // with Marianela Medrano
11 January 2017 Your Callings, Your Livelihood, Your Life // With Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
26 October 2016 Leverage Your TLA Expertise for Publication, Community, Business, and Livelihood // with Yvette Angelique Hyater-Adams
26 October 2016 Not Enough Spoons: Writing About Disability & Chronic Illness // with Angie River
14 September 2016 Wound Dwelling: Writing the Survivor Body(ies) // with Jennifer Patterson
14 September 2016 Creating a Sustainable Story: Self-Care, Meaningful Work, and the Business of Creativity // with Laura Packer
29 June 2016 Coming Home to Body, Earth, and Time: Writing From Where We Live // with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
29 June 2016 Making the Leap into Work You Love // with Scott Youmans
18 May 2016 Saturated Selfies: Intentional and Intense Photography and Writing
18 May 2016 Changing the World with Words: TLA Foundations // with Joanna Tebbs Young
28 March 2016 Gathering Courage: Still-Doing, Big Journaling, and Other (Not So Scary) Ways to Begin Accommodating the Soul
15 February 2016 Living Out Loud: Healing Through Storytelling and Writing
15 February 2016 Soulful Songwriting: How To Begin, Collaborate, And Finish Your Song
04 January 2016 The Five Senses and the Four Elements: Connecting with the Body and Nature Through Poetry
04 January 2016 Your Memoir as Monologue: How to Create Dynamic Dramatic Monologues About Healing and Transformation for Performance

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